Disclaimer: Neither Merlin nor its characters belong to me.
A/N: A very dear friend sent me a "The coffee place is the only moment of peace she gets from her crazy family who lives in the penthouse of the same building. He's the hopeless barista who always screws up her order on purpose just so she'll up to the counter and yell at him." prompt a few weeks ago and it, along with my weakness for coffee shop aus and my need to procrastinate during exam prep, led to this...
The first time Morgana goes to Gaius's coffee shop, she does so because it's convenient, the second because she likes their coffee and their chairs, and the seventy-sixth because it's become the only place she can escape to in the middle of the night.
It's towards the end of exams when she learns that the shop never closes and starts going late at night, too anxious to study at home. She finds comfort in its surroundings and goes night after night, staying until one or two in the morning. Its worn carpets and plush, leather armchairs lull her jumbled, frantic thoughts and give off a more soothing atmosphere than her family's stark, modern penthouse up above, where Uther and Arthur fuss and scream about an impending scandal that Uther has brought down on their heads.
Slamming the door behind her as Uther's screams echo down the stairs, Morgana heads there again tonight. She's glad that she's developed the habit of showing up at odd hours. It's nearly two in the morning and while anyone else would question her appearance, she knows Gaius won't bat an eye, even when he sees she doesn't have any schoolbooks to keep her awake.
A final shout from Uther pierces through the building's surprisingly thin walls, and she puts more force into her steps, the clicks of her heels calming her down as they reverberate through the corridor and she makes her way to the lift. No doubt everyone on their floor and below is asleep, but the knowledge that Uther would convulse at the thought of her making a further scene and alerting their neighbours to their problems fills her with glee.
Sub-zero winds lap at her face as she makes her way out onto the street, and she wishes she'd thought to grab a coat in her rage. She burrows her chin into her massive, cashmere scarf and takes the fifteen steps to the coffee shop, letting out a growl as she pushes through the door.
"Again, Morgana?"
She stills, quickly looking towards the register and surveying the rest of the room. Gaius is nowhere to be found. Instead, his nephew and her one problem with the shop is leaning against the counter behind the register, watching her with concern.
Morgana scowls and shrugs. "You aren't going to refuse to serve me, are you?"
She tells herself she hates him, but she struggles to keep the frown on her face as his look softens and he pushes away from the granite surface to reach for a mug. "Of course not. Your usual?" he asks, his brows lifting.
Her frown disappears at that, and she feels the corners of her mouth quirk into an involuntary grin. "Do you even know my drink, Merlin?"
He gets her order wrong every single time he's on shift, making her different drinks and spluttering apologies amidst puppy-eyed stares as she tells him off. She's convinced he does it on purpose, but he never pushes the conversation further, and she finds herself confusedly staring at him from her little, corner nook with more and more frequency.
His voice softens as he speaks, "I know your order, Morgana." He gestures to stop her as she digs into her bag for her wallet. "I'll bring it to you."
She begins to object, but he cuts her off, "I've been ordered by Gaius not to let you pay if you walk in here after midnight."
She smiles, looking off to the side. "That's sweet of him."
Both the coffee shop owner and a long-time resident of the building, Gaius is an old friend, and the order touches her. He sits up with her when her late night visits aren't academically motivated, listening to her rants or telling her stories of his own.
"Well, he's also ordered me to put decaf shots in your late night mochas, but I don't think you want me to listen to that bit."
Morgana smirks, not at all surprised. Gaius, a former doctor who'd only opened the shop after he'd grown bored with early retirement, is always lecturing her about her excessive caffeine consumption, even as he makes her extra shots. "No. I'll be here for a while, so best not."
"It'll be our secret then." Merlin smiles and then nods towards her table.
She considers her usual spot, and for once, the heavy oak table doesn't call to her. She settles for the armchairs in the centre of the room instead, tossing her bag onto the carpet and dropping into the softest looking seat. She draws her legs up beneath her, thankful she hadn't bothered to trade her green velvet smoking slippers for boots, and already feels calmer than she had minutes ago.
Eying the bookshelves along the walls, she wonders what to do to pass the time until Uther cools down and she can go back upstairs. Despite herself, she feels sleepy and wishes Gaius were there to recommend something or to merely keep her company. She considers getting back up to browse the selection, but then Merlin appears before her and she's taken aback to find she feels a bit nervous in his presence.
She's spent many evenings sitting with Gaius. They discuss her classes and even, sometimes, her relationship with Uther, whom Gaius has known since long before Morgana came into the picture. Yet, somehow, she's never been on the same side of the counter as Merlin, never seen him from this angle, and she's surprised to find how blue his eyes as he smiles down at her.
She says, "Thank you." as he places her drink down before her, but then frowns as he plops into the chair across from hers with a second cup in his hands. "What are you doing?"
"I was due for a break."
"But the -"
He shrugs. "There's no one else here, Morgana." His eyes sparkle as he checks his watch. "... and given that it's nearing two twenty in the morning on a Tuesday, I don't think it's likely that anyone else is going to arrive."
She looks down and reaches for her cup. "Gaius sits with me sometimes."
Merlin smiles at her, clearly bemused. "He's said."
She frowns, pausing with the cup before her lips. "He hasn't -"
"Oh! No. He's just said how much he enjoys your visits."
She smiles, relieved that her elderly confidante hasn't said more. She trusts the old doctor, finding as much comfort in his occasional wise words as within his shop, and she's glad that her trust in him is well placed. "Well, I enjoy them as well. He didn't order you to do this too, did he?"
"No."
She smiles, finally taking a sip of her drink. The caffeinated, chocolaty liquid spreads instant warmth through her, and she's surprised by how good it is, not too powdery or too strong, exactly the way she likes it.
"Good?"
"It's excellent." She smirks, her earlier suspicions confirmed. "You've been messing up my drinks on purpose this entire time, haven't you?"
Merlin smirks. "I didn't at first, but then..." He trails off as his cheeks darken. Was he blushing? "Your reactions were too endearing to stop?"
She snorts. "I distinctively remember snapping at you. Repeatedly."
She takes another sip of her drink and leans back in her chair, hands wrapped around the enormous white mug.
Merlin shrugs, and the blush deepens, causing her to smirk.
Something flutters in her chest, and she wonders at his reaction.
He clears his throat. "So what brings you in tonight?"
Her mouth contorts into a cynical half smile, and she looks at the cup in her hands, absent-mindedly noticing the chip in her deep, wine-coloured varnish. She considers lying to him, but she finds him watching her with genuine interest when she raises her eyes to look back at him, and says, "We aren't all as lucky as you are with Gaius when it comes to father figures."
"Uther?"
Morgana frowns. "You know my stepfather?"
"I do live in the same building, you know."
"You do?"
"I live with Gaius. At least for now."
"I didn't realise you were staying with him."
"You wouldn't."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Just..." he trails off and gestures at her. "Why should you?"
She stares at him, taking in just how well his exceptionally tousled hair frames his face, sharpening his exquisite cheekbones and yet somehow simultaneously making him appear more vulnerable. She wonders what impression she's given off that he thinks she has no reason to notice him. Granted, she's kept him at an arm's length and been short with him, but that had more to do with her unease with her reactions to him than with him himself.
"Why shouldn't I?"
"You're always rude to me."
She considers him and decides she admires him for his frankness. "I'm sorry."
He shrugs and looks away, and she adds, "It's a matter of habit."
"Being rude?" The corner of his mouth twists upwards, and she adds his smile to the list of things she likes about him.
"Keeping my defences up."
He nods. "I can understand that. What did Uther do, then?"
Morgana hesitates, never having been one to spill her guts to relative strangers. Still, something about Merlin makes her feel at ease, as if she's known him for far longer than the three odd weeks he's been working with Gaius and the ten or so minutes where they haven't been at odds with each other. She wonders if the unexpected connection is what's subconsciously been pushing her to keep him at a distance. She opens her mouth to speak, but Merlin must have noticed her hesitation because he speaks before she does -
"I'm sorry. It isn't my place."
"No, it's okay. It's just that I'm not used to talking about Uther." She taps her finger against the handle of the mug, and adds, "At least not to anyone that isn't Gwen or Gaius."
"Gwen's the friend who was in here with you, yeah?"
Morgana quirks an eyebrow but smiles. She'd only brought Gwen to the coffee shop a handful of times, and only two of those times had been in the past few weeks. Gwen had gone out of her way to acknowledge Merlin though, and she wasn't surprised that he remembered her.
"She's my best friend, and she's engaged to Arthur."
"Your brother?"
She nods. "I've been friends with Gwen for ages. Her dad worked for Uther and her mum was a professor and would volunteer to tutor Arthur and me from time to time. Gwen's a year younger than us, but she'd always join in, and we all bonded, though it took them a long time to figure things out."
"Uther must be happy that they got together though, if he's friends with her father."
"Oh, he isn't. That's actually how tonight's argument started."
Merlin frowns. "I thought he'd be the type to embrace those kinds of connections."
If only it were that simple. Morgana's mouth twists into a sardonic smile. "He is, but you see, Gwen didn't follow her father into the business, and he doesn't think she has potential." She hears the way her voice drips with sarcasm, and she feels her anger towards Uther build up again.
"What does she do?"
"She's in grad school with me, except she's interested in social sciences. She's specializing in gender studies and she wants to go down the academic route. Uther doesn't exactly look upon that fondly, and he thinks gender studies is, so to speak, a 'bullshit topic' he doesn't want associated to his name."
She watches Merlin as she speaks, curious to see how he'll react. She knows her fair share of men who agree with Uther, and she internally sighs with relief as he frowns and gives a derisive snort of laughter.
"That's ridiculous."
"It is. Especially because I don't see Gwen taking Arthur's name."
Merlin smirks and leans forward in his chair. "I bet that pisses Uther off, too."
"It does. More so, somehow."
"And what do you study?"
"Literature."
"Really?"
There isn't an ounce of judgement in his expression, nothing but the appearance of genuine interest, and she nods. "I started out in Economics, but I hated everything about it. Uther's glee most of all."
"He must be thrilled now."
Morgana smiles, thinking back to all the screaming matches that had turned to silent rage. Uther knew she wouldn't back down, and so he'd learned to keep quiet and express his anger towards other matters.
"What are you specializing in?"
"The depiction of witchcraft in Medieval and Early Modern works."
She expects a neutral response, used to indifference even by those in her wider field, but Merlin beams at her, his smile taking over his entire face. "That's excellent."
"And what do you study? Gaius told me you'd moved to the city to go back to grad school, too."
"History. I'm working on the politicized mythicization of sorcery in the medieval period."
"You're kidding."
He shakes his head, eyes sparkling as his obvious mirth fails to subside, and Morgana finds herself smiling back at him, even as she feels something tighten in her chest and chides herself for keeping Merlin at a distance for so long.
Morgana's visits to the coffee shop become even more frequent after that. Merlin stops messing up her drinks, and she stops glaring at him.
She trades her corner table for the bar adjacent to the espresso machines when she isn't there to study, and they fall into an endless stream of conversation. Something about Merlin, beyond their shared academic interests, still strikes Morgana as oddly familiar, and she opens up in a way that surprises her.
Merlin does the same and begins taking his breaks to coincide with her visits, so that he can join her when she does come in with a bag full of papers and books. They read in companionable silence or bounce ideas off of each other until Gaius shows up at the table to remind them of the time and send Merlin running back to the counter.
Morgana catches Gaius' inquisitive stare the first time he spots her and Merlin sitting together, but his silent questioning slowly quickly turns into smug, knowing glances, and she can't help but smile back at the sudden changes.
Her nighttime visits to the shop become even more habitual as the weeks elapse and the visits have less to do with escaping her family and more to do with the barista. Gaius lets her know when he assigns Merlin the night shift, walking off with a quiet little laugh, and she shows up around midnight with novels and oversized jumpers to settle into the armchairs in the centre of the room.
Merlin waits until the last customers leave to join her, and they continue their earlier conversations over hot chocolate before settling on more intimate topics.
Not even an entire month passes after their initial friendly meeting when Morgana realizes she's grown closer to Merlin than anyone but Gwen. For whatever reason, the thought doesn't scare her, and for the first time, she doesn't even consider running.
Morgana does, however, find herself running when a week later, she wakes up from a nightmare at three a.m. and can't go back to sleep. Arthur has finally moved out to be closer to Gwen, and Uther is nowhere to be found, having disappeared on a weeks-long business trip and left the penthouse in a deadly quiet state.
She starts off the evening happy with the calm, spreading out in the living room with takeaway and research articles, but then she dozes off on the sofa before she can even think of going down to the café, and the nightmares begin almost immediately.
She sees flames bursting out of her bedside table in a muddy hovel, finds herself in excruciating pain on the ground in autumnal woods, paralyzed as an old, bearded man stands over her, and she wakes up screaming. The dreams are nothing new. They're visions she's had ever since she was a child, but they become more and more vivid with every recurrence without ever gaining meaning.
She considers staying put as her heartbeat slows, but she knows from past experience that dozing off again will mean returning to the same dreamscapes. Throwing the blanket she'd wrapped herself in aside, she grabs her bag and runs downstairs.
Merlin's on shift again, and he pushes away from the counter with a soft smile as the door chimes to alert him to her entrance.
"I didn't think you were coming tonight."
"I dozed off much earlier than I expected."
Her trouble sleeping is no secret, and Merlin frowns. "But you couldn't stay asleep?"
She shrugs, giving him a strained smile. He may know many little things about her at this point, but she hasn't told anyone but Gaius and her childhood sleep therapist about her dreams. She hesitates, fiddling with a spare thread on her scarf, and finally mutters, "I have nightmares."
Merlin nods once, frown deepening. "I'm sorry."
"They're nothing new. I could use hot chocolate and company, though."
He gives her an apologetic look and gestures at a table of quiet but numerous students. They're first years by the look of them. Textbooks and laptops line every surface of the communal table, and one of the tired looking youths stands reading from a pile of flashcards. "They've been here for hours."
Morgana sighs. "It'd have to be tonight, wouldn't it?"
"I think it's exam season for the undergrads. I'm sorry."
"It's fine. They're bound to leave soon." She smiles at him reassuringly and climbs onto one of the bar chairs.
Merlin grabs a mug but frowns at her actions. "You can't be comfortable there at this hour."
"I'm fine! I'd rather sit and chat, and if that means sitting here, then so be it."
"Do you want me to turn them out?"
"Merlin!"
"I could." He smirks, shooting her a wink as he stirs the chocolaty liquid.
"Gaius would have your head."
"He'll have it for not taking better care of you, as well." He pauses and apologetically adds, "Not that you need taking care of."
Morgana smirks. "No, but you do an excellent job of it anyway, you and those sinfully delicious beverages."
Faint colour rushes to his cheeks as he sets the hot chocolate down before her. His fingers brush hers in the process, and she surprises herself by placing her hand over his. They've never so much as touched before, yet he instinctually flips his over and laces their fingers together.
She wonders at how natural it feels and squeezes his hand, adding a, "Thank you."
"Anytime, Morgana."
The colour fades from his cheeks and he gives her such an assured gaze that warmth rushes through her, and the last traces of terror from her nightmare disappear.